Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Fevers...

As many of you know, Miss Tanya was admitted to Banner Gateway Medical Center on Sunday evening for persistent fevers of unknown origin.She spiked a fever Friday and broke on Saturday, but kept coming back despite Tylenol.She was taken to the ER on Sunday with what she thought maybe was a Radiation flare up, as she’s had before, and possibly a UTI or something going on with her kidneys. She experienced pain early in the morning on Monday so she asked for a CT Scan of her Abdomen and Pelvis.She had the scan yesterday and results came back about 415pm yesterday that she had two abscesses around the sigmoid colon.There was only one size noted and the abscess measured at 2.3 x 3 cm.The resident with Dr. Schuster’s group (the general surgeon who did her Gallbladder surgery) stopped by yesterday evening and explained it this way:Radiation is good because it can be directly given to one specific area, unlike chemo that goes all over the body, however, with radiation it kills the bad and sometimes the good cells, thus making an easy target for bacteria to present and form what she has, an abscess.Abscesses are fluid, usually pus, filled pockets of infection.Thus the reason why she’s having fevers.

She was started on Zosyn, an IV antibiotic and will have a new bag every 6hrs, this medication hopefully will touch the infection, but if the abscesses are too big the antibiotic cannot get to the center to heal them.This is where Interventional Radiology (IR) would come in and drain them.They would basically do a fine needle aspiration to remove the fluid, they use CT technology to guide the needle in so it’s less invasive.The other option is surgery if the abscesses are too small for IR to drain or too big where surgery is needed.

Tanya said she had a rough night last night, that the pain she’s having in the abdomen and back was its highest at an 8.This morning Dr. Schuster came in to see her and told he was waiting for the IR doctor to get in so they can talk but ultimately it's his final word on what happens as he is the head surgeon. Said he was sorry this was happening to her and he would fix it as soon as he could.Made a few jokes and said he would talk to Dr. Borst and make a plan. He said this situation is delicate. It's not just do surgery or go through IR. He wants to get everyone involved and get answers. There is an infection in there but he doesn't know why or how it go there. He needs answers. So said he would be back later to see her…

Dr. Schuster came back and talked to Dr. Borst and they will be putting a transfer request in to have her transported from Banner Gateway to Banner Good Samaritan sometime today because that’s where Dr. Borst is, her Oncologist. He said he wholeheartedly believes in his radiologist at Good Sam since that’s the hospital he works out of, so she’s showering and eating then when the transfer goes through she will be taken by ambulance (so she doesn’t get a bill). They are still thinking the IR can drain them, but Dr. Borst wants her there. This is good…at least her doctor wants his patient to be taken care of by himself and no one else.

I will keep you up to date as we know what’s going on…please keep her in your prayers and pray everything goes well and she’s home for her 28th birthday on Thursday and that she can still have her 6th and FINAL round of Chemo on the 21st!